Show 0 national topics interpreted by william bruckart national Kal lonal press Du lilling washington 1 D C f washington at last it after years of talking a social security program Is 15 before congress social and now that it Is sc security ity before congress there Is a brand new outburst of talk because it seems seeing tile the social secure rs never can call agree among themselves the result Is that leadership in ID the house and in ID tile the senate ts Is trying vainly to follow administration instructions and has bas run afoul of all kinds of difficulties the end Is not yet but it t Is safe to say without fear of any necessity for retraction that the social security program will not go back to president roosevelt as a law in the form it was presented as an administration bill I 1 find everywhere among those not charged with responsibility for the social security legislation that there Is much confusion and lack of understanding as to what the president has proposed it Is 13 easily understood any time that it requires thirty thousand words to explain a piece of legislation obviously that legislation must be complex to comprehend what the length of air Roosevel ts social security message Is it Is only necessary I 1 think to remind readers that the message with its explanation er of the legislation would fill approximately thirty five columns of an ordinary newspaper many persons naturally will fall asleep before they wade through that much material cut but let us attempt to summarize the social security bill it provides first for a national system of compulsory contributory old age insurance second it authorizes appropriations to bemused as federal subsidies plain gifts to the individual states to help them pension the aged who cannot be brought under an insurance system predicated upon their service in commerce and industry and third a voluntary system of old age annuities Is set up the system of compulsory contributory old age insurance is designed to protect those aho vho are no longer able to work but who have done their turn on the payrolls of industry an old age fund Is set up in the treasury of the united states initially the money comes from the treasury but thereafter there Is a tax operating on payrolls of all those who alio employ workers in numbers exceeding four this tax will start january 1 a rate of I 1 per cent it Is increased to 2 per cent as of january 1 1402 1492 3 per cent as of january 1 1917 1017 4 per cent as of january 1 1932 1952 and 5 per cent after january 1 1957 2957 the employer pays the tax but he collects halt half of it by a deduction from the payroll of the individual worker the age of sixty five years is fixed as the time when a worker shall retire and receive this pension the pensioner can receive as much as 30 a month it if the individual dies before retirement his dependents receive back the amount paid in in his behalf As a part of the old age pension system the legislation sets up an old age fund in which workers may purchase an annuity but they never may acquire more than a total of maturity value the ultimate amount from which their income may be increased then there Is the much discussed unemployment insurance this also Is predicated upon a tax on industrial payrolls but it Is a state proposition that Is the federal government Is attempting to encourage individual states to enact legislation which will protect the worker in a periods such as that through which we have passed since 1929 aa in other words this phase of the legislation Is designed to cause workers and their employers to lay aside a certain percentage of their income while they are employed to be used when times are hard there are countless subdivisions in the bill none ot of which are simple that seek to protect the many who for one reason or another do not qualify under the general terms of the legislation for instance aid to dependent children la Is provided federal health subsidies a kind of health insurance Is proposed maternal aid Is arranged and extraordinary cases are covered such as aa aid to crippled children there are other subdivisions much too intricate to analyze here lor for the reason that their application Is decidedly limited the drafters of 0 the legislation sought to cover all whether they have done so can be determined only after the legislation has baa teen been in operation some jears bears I 1 have been unable to compute the cost of this legislation to the federal and state govern gosorn counting ment and no one of the cost course can approximate the expense tt it will be to industry it Is one of those things so far reaching in its effect as to make utterly impossible advance i calculations of the cost in dollars and cents suffice it to say that ail all through the bill as it now wends bends its ita way through legi slathe channels are fro fre quent paragraphs where here money either la Is appropriated or authorized to be 1 appropriated in the future one wag covered the money phases of the bill c the other day with a remark that it was riot not unlike the between amor and andy the radio couie come for there Is live five million three million twenty million luil llon seventy eight million and so on through the list yet it Is not the money phases that constitute the difficulties in the legislation as the leaders in con congress ress see them the bill sets up an all intricate system of against which een cea the present far flung list ot of new deal agencies pales palea into insignificance first there Is the alie ponderous for administration to be created here in washington beneath that there are state organizations in every state regional and county organizations and even city administrative bureaus I 1 think it takes no stretch of the imagination to foresee how many workers will be necessary to do just the plain chores of heebl keeping b I 1 a record of all the individuals on tile the government payrolls pai rolls federal and state for administration of this legislation nere here in washington we will have a social insurance board a group 0 of three members receiving a year each cadi and sen ing for six sis years the federal emergency relief administrator will have duties to perform in conjunction with the social insurance board as well vell as apart from it the secretary of labor Is given jurisdiction over some phases of the administration and the public health aenice sen ice is charged with conduct of the health insurance phases this is not all the secretary of 0 the treasury Is charged with tile the management and investment of all of 0 the monies under the various funds and it Is lie he who iho must see that they are properly disbursed 0 0 rn in congress considerable jealousy has arisen among committee chairmen party wheel horses jealousy and those who would aroused enjoy being administration spokesmen some of them it hardly need be said believe their political salvation lies in fOl following followed lOWID the administration blindly and in addition there is another be segment of 0 legislators who ho keep their eyes on the historical significance of passing events this group wants to have a leading part in enactment of the social security legislation because it must be said bald this Is the greatest of all experiments undertaken at any time by the american government from lobby conversation it Is perfectly evident that there are many men in the house and senate who would be willing to retire to whatever rewards their political service has given them only to become known as the father of the social security legislation this condition has precipitated several eral humorous circumstances senator wagner of new york sponsored the legislation in the senate and inep lewis of maryland proposed it in the house senator wag tiers ners committee arranged to start hearings on a stated date in the senate and that date was announced rather suddenly no sooner had bad the wagner committee hearings been announced than rep representative dough doughton ton of north carolina scheduled similar bearl hearings before his big ways and means committee in the house lie ile set the hearings one day ahead of the senate and the rivalry bet between veen the two tor for headline witnesses has been to say the least a source of many jokes 0 0 10 some weeks ago I 1 reported to you that there were rumblings gs of difficulties ahead for the trouble presidents gigantic ahead public works program as ills his new experiment peri perl ment to ID recovery efforts Is described bed lie ile asked congress for a lump jump sum of with which to revive the heavy industries and other lines of commercial endeavor that they may absorb some of those unemployed now on relief relict rols rolls it will be remembered that in his annual message to congress he be said with emphasis that federal al aid to the destitute must stop that the giving of relief directly was a state responsibility the first hitch bitch encountered by the administration wheel horses in guiding the public works bill through congress developed in the house when the leaders anxious to pass the legislation as the white house dictated sought bought a special rule which limited debate to a couple of hours and made it almost impossible for individual members to amend the bill several scores of democrats and all of the republicans balked for several days the house leaders fought gallantly to keep the stubborn opposition from running away with things but the defections from the democratic ranks became so large that a compromise had bad to be offered it was accepted and the republican critics and democratic opponents were successfully squelched one result of the near revolt against the house democratic leadership was the exposition of feeling against secretary ickes of the department of the interior who also carries the titles of public works administrator and oil ad A lot of democrats dislike 11 ke mr ickes tor for what they call his political aloofness apparently he has not dot yielded to co their demands for patronage appointments and naturally nian see king elective offices hold out albat plum as bait to voters 1 G C western New newspaper union r |